Marilyn's Heaven in a Bowl Custard

Custard

CUSTARD, HEAVEN IN A BOWL

Jump straight to the recipe:

This is one of those recipes which I am sure will become part of the McNee clan's cooking repertoire. Marilyn goes back a long way as a teaching colleague of Neil's, and came to the Retiree's lunch at our place last week with a plum pudding left over from Christmas, a cheesecake, and this nostalgic custard. What I love about Marilyn's generation, is that she has no qualms about taking a shortcut with her cooking when necessary, hence the use of the Vanilla Instant pudding mix in this recipe. I should also mention she taught Home Economics for many years, hence her cooking, and her dressmaking etc is highly respected.

Neil was so excited by this custard, that I felt almost guilty that I don't cook more of it for him. In this heat we are experiencing at the moment, it is brilliant to be able to just mix up the ingredients for a recipe, chill it in the frig and it is ready. No cooking involved. I took a bowl of the custard which was leftover from the Retiree's lunch over to Kati's the following day for her birthday lunch. She found it in her frig that evening, and renamed it Heaven in a Bowl. I think she and little Leon ate it all in one sitting.

Neil remembers when the Vanilla Instant Pudding craze started when he was a just a boy living in Toowoomba. He often played over at his neighbour's house in the afternoons, where they sometimes made the pudding for dessert. Occasionally he was offered some, and as a lad he was in heaven when that happened. I don't remember my Mum ever using instant puddings, except perhaps jellies, as I think she cooked most things from scratch. However, in those days in Rockhampton they didn't frequent shops or the very scattered supermarkets as often as we do now.







The addition of the sprinkle of nutmeg in this pudding gives the dish an individual flavour, akin to that of homemade custard.

Marilyn’s “Heaven in a Bowl” Custard

Ingredients:

1 Vanilla Instant Pudding (Cottee's) (found at Woolworths with the jellies, custards etc.)

300ml Cream

300ml Full cream milk (or concede and use low fat milk because of cream being added in the recipe)

Sprinkle of nutmeg

Method:

1. Add milk and cream to a bowl.
2. Sprinkle in the pudding mix.
3. Beat with an electric hand beater until the mixture is thick enough.
4. Sprinkle with ground nutmeg and mix in.
5. Place covered bowl in the refrigerator and allow to set. This won't take long.
6. Whilst this is a custard it will set as a pudding consistency.
7. Serve with fresh fruit, frozen mango, plum pudding or whatever you are serving or just eat it on it's own as comfort food.